1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to voice command computer systems and, more particularly, to such systems which present command feedback to the end-user.
2. Background and Related Art
As the computer field has matured, vast improvements have been made in easing the manner in which end-users may interface with the systems. What was originally a crude command line interface requiring keyboard input of the end-user has now evolved to a rich panoply of techniques and devices for facilitating a more natural human interface with the computer. Representative examples of this include various pointing devices such as mice, track balls, touchscreens and voice activated interfaces made possible by advances in computerized speech recognition.
Such speech recognition falls into two major categories. First, systems have been developed for voice data input, examples of which include speech dictation or "speech-to-text" systems such as those marketed by the IBM Corporation and Dragon Systems. Yet a second category of computerized speech recognition technology is represented by command and control systems wherein end-user speech patterns are detected and analyzed. A specific form of this command and control technology is represented by a "desktop navigator", wherein a user may navigate through a computer system's graphical user interface (GUI) by merely speaking menu command words, labels on buttons, directional commands such as "up" and "left" to move the familiar mouse cursor, and the like.
Due to inherent voice recognition errors such speech recognition systems are prone to--partly because of the state of the technology and partly due to the variability of the user's speech patterns and memory of the correct inputs to utter, such systems typically reserve a dedicated, predetermined area of the GUI to display the system's interpretation of the user's utterances. The user, by inspecting this area, is looking for confirmation that the utterance he or she just made was in fact interpreted or acted upon correctly.
Current speech recognition systems display this "best guess" in a control window at a fixed position on the screen of the GUI in a control window. Although the spatial positioning of this control window may in some implementations be altered by the end-user as desired or is placed in a fixed location such as the title bar of the current application being executed, numerous problems nevertheless remain associated with this technology. These methods of displaying these interpreted commands attempt to place the confirmation area in a position so as to not block the visibility of other important portions of the application. However, in doing so, this may necessitate distracting and disrupting eye movement from the area of the screen where the end-user is focusing to the confirmation area of the voice recognition, whereupon the user must then recall and reposition his or her eyes at the area of the screen which had the user's focus prior to the interruption caused by display of the confirmation area. Moreover, current systems display the results of the speech perception system without taking into account interpretation of the command, as it is simply reported.
It will be readily appreciated that in sessions of any length with such a voice recognition computer system these drawbacks can become extremely tiresome both physically and mentally and can severely impact the productivity of the end-user in a manner as to almost effectively negate the aforementioned benefits to voice recognition or navigation systems. Current methods and technology have simply been unable to eliminate these serious problems of maintaining visibility of important areas of the display and the focusing and refocusing just described.
Accordingly, such a voice command and control system was highly desired which could avoid the distractions to end-users and the degradation of visibility of applications presented on GUI user interfaces.